A Functional Analysis of the Use of Repetition in English and Vietnamese Novels

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES BÙI THỊ HẢI YÊN A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF REPETITION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NOVELS Major ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code 822 02 01[.]

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ HẢI YÊN

A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF REPETITION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NOVELS

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES

OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES (A SUMMARY)

Da Nang, 2020

This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Huỳnh Lộc, PhD

Examiner1: Assoc Prof Dr Trần Văn Phước

Examiner2: Ph.D Lê Thị Giao Chi

The thesis was orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: June 2020

Venue: Tay Nguyen University

This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:

- Library of University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of DaNang

- The Center for Learning Information Resources and

Communication, University of DaNang

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Literature has an important role in our life, and it is one of the most necessary subjects in all curricula To be good at a language and understand a literary work, we must first understand certain grammar and rules Literature is a place where authors convey their ideas, lessons, and experiences to everyone There are many ways that the writers have been using to make the language become such a valuable and flexible means of transferring ideas with the use of stylistic devices

Stylistic devices play the greatest role in the analysis of any kind of literary text The term “figure of speech” is used for stylistic devices that make use of a figurative meaning of the language elements and thus create a vivid image Among other figures of speech, repetition is one of the widely used syntactic stylistic devices That is used very often in English as well as Vietnamese novels

Repetition is one of those ways which create great effects for literary works It is a technique widely used in the novel because it

shows the writer’s feeling clearly Repetition is often used in poetry or

song, and it is used to create rhythm and bring attention to an idea Repetition is also often used in speech, as a rhetorical device to bring attention to an idea Many writers who prefer to use repetition

as a literary device choose the right sentences and ideas to apply this stylistic device so that it will promote the best effect This helps readers understand the feelings and ideas that the authors want to reveal with impression The interesting thing about stylistic repetition

is that there are repeat rules When used as a stylistic device, repetition acquires-quite different functions It does not aim at making a direct emotional impact as one might think On the contrary, the stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary

to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance

Unfortunately, in studies on this topic, only types of repetitions and their usages in speeches, songs, novels…have been addressed There are still gaps in the functions of repetition in detective novel in term of vocabulary and structure

Let’s look at two following sentences contain repetition in English and Vietnamese novel:

(1.1) “He went on: "You know, I think ours will be the perfect

marriage: We both love each other enough and not too much We're good friends We've got a lot of tastes in common We know each other through and through We've all the advantages of cousinship

without the disadvantages of blood relationship (Sad cypress,11, p.7)

In the novel “Sad Cypress-Agatha Christie” you can see that

the word “We” is repeated four times to express their relationship is

very good and they have a lot in common

(1.2) “Không! Không hề gì, không hề gì (Gói thuốc lá,16, p.6)

In the novel “Gói thuốc lá-Thế Lữ”, the phrase “Không hề gì, không hề gì” is repeated twice, not only to emphasize that the problem

is not serious but also reassure the hearer in a particular context of communication

Repetition is used to enrich the novels and makes the novel’s details memorable, interesting Also, it can sharpen the emotion of the listeners There are still so many unexplored interesting things about

repetition that need to be studied in view of discourse functions That

is the reason why I choose to study this stylistic device to help readers

to recognize its functions and structures in English and Vietnamese

novels It is expected that "A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF REPETITION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NOVELS.” This study will provide practical knowledge for teachers

and learners of English especially students majoring in the English language literature well as those who are interested in this field of figurative language as far as repetition is concerned

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.2.1 Aims

This study is aimed at investigating functions of repetition in English and Vietnamese novels in order to provide a good insight into repetition in terms of similarities and differences of them Besides, the findings of the study can provide teachers and learners of English with some helpful information about using repetition in the novels and applying in English teaching and learning

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There are many kinds of novels for examining repetition: however, because of the limited time, I decided to conduct the description of repetition in detective novel

This study aims to discover the similarities and the differences

of functional repetition in the novel

To make the research more manageable and reliable, I limited the scope of the study by studying detective novels The data for analysis were selected from the novel “Dumb Witness” (1937), “Death

on the Nile” (1937), “Sad Cypress” (1940) by Agatha Christie and

“Mai Hương và Lê Phong” (1937), “Lê Phong phóng viên” (1937),

“Gói thuốc lá” (1940) by The Lu

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

With the purpose focusing on the linguistic features of stylistic devices in the novel in English and Vietnamese, the findings

of the study will help the readers to have a better insight into the use

of repetition (repetition of vocabulary, repetition of structure) and signify the differences and similarities in functions between English

novels and Vietnamese novels, especially in detective novels where repetition contributes to bring to the foreground details in crime fiction, a murder mystery style

From the research, the readers or learners can apply some tips in using repetition in writing or real life

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Background

Chapter 3: Research Design Methodology

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

There are a lot of studies of stylistic devices in the literature

on the issues of figures of speech and genres One of the basis of stylistic devices usage and principles of the organization of the text is repetition Repetition or reprise is considered to be a phonomorphological phenomenon, a figure of speech which consists

of the repetition of sounds, words, morphemes, synonyms or semantic structures with sufficient compactness of the series that is quite close

to each other so that they can be seen (Dibrova 1998; Lisochenko 1997; Nikolina 2002; Arnold 1990) Repeated words can be grouped around a single object or bring together different subjects and images

of the plans, reinforcing the common ground between the various characters, the character and the world around him, and so on Stylistic repetition has been studied by thousands of linguists in English and Vietnamese for a long time It has so far been an interesting topic for study all over the world Repetition has been dealt with by many famous writers in both English and Vietnamese who made great contributions to the background theory of this research

Long ago, there have been researchers investigating stylistic devices, namely: Galperin, Stylistics (1977) showed repetition’s functions and examples of them Ghaleb Rabab’ Ah, (2012) in

Research in Language conducted a pragmatic analysis to the discourse

of Dr Phil and his guests on Dr Phil's TV show This study attempted

to explore the pragmatic functions of such repetitions as used by English native speakers

Not only did Western linguists study repetition as stylistic devices but also Vietnamese researchers investigated this problem many years ago Diệp Quang Ban (1996) has dealt with Vietnamese stylistics with an examination of repetition of all kinds Cù Đình Tú (1994) showed the definition and function of repetition In recent years, researchers have done a lot of researches that focuses on investigating the commonly used stylistic devices in written texts through difference genres

So far, the writers have been very interested and pleasant in the study of repetition With the use in different genres, such as (poems, novels, speeches, songs…) Though these findings in these studies help the learners understand more about repetition in novels and the usage, there still remain important gaps Despite the careful

descriptions of repetition in form and effect, they offer few suggestions on how to use it in pragmatic contexts with specific functions More should be addressed in these aspects of repetition

a) studies the totality of special linguistic means (stylistic devices and expressive means) which secure the desirable effect of the utterance

b) studies certain types of texts "discourse" which due to the choice and arrangement of the language are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication (functional styles)

2.2.1.2 Functions of Stylistic Devices

Galperin (1977) considers function of stylistic devices as

“marked unit in texts They always carry some kind of additional information, either emotive or logical

In sum, writers use stylistic devices for some more functions: to emphasize or highlight an attitude or an opinion, to impress someone’s position or situation on someone, to make a remark or make a statement vivid and unforgettable, to make something clear and understandable to the audience, to awaken the understanding, sympathy, and pity for someone’s situation, and to make a train of thought more obvious to the audience

2.2.2 Foregrounding and backgrounding

2.2.2.1 Foregrounding

Following Jan Mukarovsky, one of the leading exponents of the prague linguistic circle, was the first to postulate the concept of foregrounding In his famous article "standard language and poetic

language", he (1970:43) states “Foregrounding is the opposite of automatization, that is the deautomatization of an act, the more an act

is automatized the less consciously executed; the more it is

foregrounded the more completely conscious does it become.”

The theory of foregrounding is one of the foundations of Stylistics There are several approaches to the classification of the foregrounding types The first is suggested by Leech (2007:38) and involves the division of this device into qualitative and quantitative aspects

2.2.2.2 Foregrounding features and stylistic effect

Following Simpson (2007) see foregrounding as a form of textual patterning which is motivated specifically for literary aesthetic purposes According to Simpson, it is capable of working at any level

of language and typically involves a stylistic distortion of some sort, either through an aspect of the text which deviates from a linguistic norm or, alternatively, where an aspect of the text is brought to the

fore through repetition or parallelism, in other words, foregrounding

as ‘deviation from the norm’ and foregrounding as ‘more of the same’

Foregrounding has lots of features These features are formally and broadly classified into phonological (rhyme, alliteration, consonance and repetition), graphological (capitalisation, embolding and spelling), lexico-semantic (metaphor, hyperbole, pun and

antithesis) and grammatical (affixation, imperatives, interrogatives and parataxis) levels

2.2.3 Repetition

2.2.3.1 Definition

Repetition is a figure of speech that shows the logical emphasis that is necessary to attract a reader’s attention on the key-word or a key-phrase of the text It implies repeating sounds, words, expressions and clauses in a certain succession or even with no particular placement of the words, in order to provide emphasis There

is no restriction in using repetition but too much repetition can be dull

and even spoil its stylistic effect

Galperin in his book “Stylistics” makes a very clear definition

of stylistic repetition is that “repetition is an expressive means of the language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion”

(1977)

Cù Đình Tú (1994) writes that “Điệp từ ngữ là cách tu từ dùng

sự lặp lại những từ ngữ, những câu, những kiểu câu, kiểu phô diễn như nhau nhằm mục đích nhấn mạnh nội dung biểu đạt” (Repetition

is a Rhetorical expression that uses the same repeated words, sentences, sentence patterns and expressions to emphasize the content)

2.2.3.2 Types of repetition

To Galperin (1977), repetition is classified into Repetition of phonetic (Alliteration and Assonance), Repetition of lexical and syntactic (Anadiplosis, Anaphora, Epiphora, Epizeuxis, Framing, Mesodiplosis, Diacope, Diaphora or Pleonasm, Tautology)

2.2.2.4 The Stylistic function of repetition

According to Galperin (Stylistics, 20, p.212-214), when used

as a stylistic device, repetition acquires quite different functions It does not aim at making a direct emotional impact On the contrary, the stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance The background repetition is sometimes used to stress the ordinarily unstressed elements of the utterance Finally, like many stylistic devices, repetition is polyfunctional One of them is the

language", he (1970:43) states “Foregrounding is the opposite of automatization, that is the deautomatization of an act, the more an act

is automatized the less consciously executed; the more it is foregrounded the more completely conscious does it become.”

2.2.3.2 Foregrounded features and stylistic effect

Following Simpson (2007) see foregrounding as a form of textual patterning which is motivated specifically for literary aesthetic purposes According to Simpson, it is capable of working at any level

of language and typically involves a stylistic distortion of some sort, either through an aspect of the text which deviates from a linguistic norm or, alternatively, where an aspect of the text is brought to the

fore through repetition or parallelism, in other words, foregrounding

as ‘deviation from the norm’ and foregrounding as ‘more of the same’

In “Journal of Theoretical Linguistics [online].2019”, the

writer writes “The theory of foregrounding is one of the fundamental theories in stylistics Two aspects of foregrounding are singled out – quantitative and qualitative aspects Quantitative aspect can be realized by the redundancy of stylistic devices such as the concentration of these devices in some text fragments or by numerous lexical / syntactical repetitions The most typical techniques of quantitative aspect of foregrounding are stylistic convergence and parallelism Qualitative aspect often manifests itself as deviation represented by original tropes and lexical devices (neologisms, archaic words, etc.).”

2.2.4 The writer Agatha Christie (15 th September 1890 –

12 January 1976)

Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12th January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple She also wrote the world's longest-running play The Mousetrap and six romances under the pen name Mary Westmacott

.Most of her books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and comics, and more than 30 feature films have been based on her work

2.2.4.1 Dumb Witness (1937)

2.2.4.2 Death on the Nile (1937)